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Raphael Slawinski, Nick Bullock and Bayard Russell tackle the Stanley Headwall, just outside Banff National Park in British Columbia.

The Headwall on November 9, 2017. The Sound and The Fury is left-center. (Photo: Nick Bullock)

Home to a number of the Rockies’ best-known ice and mixed routes, the Stanley Headwall is a truly spectacular venue. Joe Josephson’s guide says it best: “Every major route on the wall is sustained, technically difficult, and contains sections of serious climbing.” (mountainproject.com) Our own Bayard Russell brings his northeast climbing skills to the big mountains of B.C.

“It was great to see a world class climber like Raphael, from 2500 miles away, strap it onto an engineering project like this pitch, working out the gear the same way a local like McCormick, Doucette or Mahoney might on some temporary dribble, sporting a bloated rack of trinkets and taking the time needed to get them in. Same rack , same tempo, different place.”

– Bayard Russell

Raphael Slawinski on The Sound and the Fury. (Photo: Bayard Russell)

The Sound and the Fury is a rare former on the Stanley Headwall reminiscent of an early season route you might find in miniature at Cathedral, Frankenstein or Poke-O.

Read about the ascent in Nick Bullock’s crafted words with more photos and videos here: Escaping the Alligator

“The three of us stood beneath a line of ice. The word ‘line’ suggests continuous, and the ‘line’ we now stood was anything but! This ‘line’ was disjointed islands, feeble daggers, and frozen blossoms crawling insidiously down from the snow field ninety metres above. This did not look to be a ‘line’ or a climb that I would choose to warm into winter.” – Nick Bullock

Pitch 1 of the Sound and the Fury, 2004 route first climbed by Jeff Relph, Paul McSorley and Tom Gruber and graded WI 6 M7, according to a report on gravsports.com

Bayard Russell is an NEice Ambassador and part owner of CATHEDRAL MOUNTAIN GUIDES. Cathedral Mountain Guides is a New Hampshire climbing guiding service founded in 2008 by American Mountain Guide Association certified guide Bayard Russell, Jr. and now run in partnership with local guide, accomplished alpinist and Piolet d’Or Recipient, Freddie Wilkinson.

Video

On Friday January, 14. Bayard Russell, Matt Horner and I climbed a line on the “Big Wall” section of Poko-Moonshine in the Adirondacks. The line paralleled the legendary Jeff Lowe route Gorillas in the Mist which hasn’t seen a 3rd ascent since Alex Lowe and Randy Rackliff repeated it the day after the FA in 1997.

Poko-O-Moonshine – Adirondacks, NY

True to Mountainfest tradition of establishing new climbs, Bayard Russell, Matt Horner & Matt McCormick established – “Endangered Species” M6+ NEI5+ R. The climb is just to the right of Jeff Lowes legendary line “Gorillas in the Mist”.

“It’s so cool that, after all these years, the Northeast continues to generate some of the most exciting winter climbing in the country” – Dougald MacDonald

The 2 Matts having a go at Gorillas / Endangered Species earlier that week. No tools left this time. Photo by Smike

We were treated with photos and a video of the ascent Sunday night at Matt McCormick’s slide show. A very impressive climb by some very motivated and committed climbers. Well done. See the video..

Matt Horner’s tools on Gorillas in the Mist, 2008. – Photo by Jessew

Many attempts over the years have been made on this section of cliff . Lack of good ice has always blocked the way. Back in 2008, Matt Horner tried the climb in an after-work ascent where he ended up lowering off his tools in the dark, that was the best anchor he could build in the thin, candled ice (see photo).

See Fifty favorite climbs: the ultimate North American tick list By Mark Kroese for information on Gorillas in the Mist

The Big Wall section of Poke-O. The thin strip of ice is the new route “Endangered Species”. Photo by Jim Lawyer